Setting up a series of book readings and signings at bookstores, libraries and retailers carries a lot of risk. Primarily, you have to sell enough books to cover the cost of driving to the locations and probably for dining and lodging. Yet, even with a good promotional effort, very few people may show up for the event.

A much less risky alternative is to do a blog tour. Such an event involves you appearing on a different blog on several consecutive days. Each blog gets its own unique “presentation” from you – one might run a guest blog written by you, another might be a Q&A interview of you, another might be a news story focusing on some aspect of your book.

This virtual tour immediately eliminates the cost of gas, meal and hotels. Even better, it focuses on hundreds of people who would be specifically interested in your book; blogs attract like-minded people internationally whereas a reading at a brick-and-mortar store’s audience is limited to those who live in that locality.

A blog tour will take some effort to organize. You’ll have to identify and then contact blog owners to determine if they’re interested, nail down topics and dates that don’t overlap, create unique written material, and then cross-promote one another. You’ll want to start arranging the tour at least several weeks before the tour is to take place, which usually coincides with you book’s release.

Ideally, you want readers of each blog to follow you through the other blogs. This gives each blog owner an incentive to participate. The benefits of the blog tour then will be two-fold for you – more book sales and more followers of your own blog.